The cognitive deterioration was less among patients with three or fewer metastatic brain tumors who received treatment with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) than those who received SRS combined with whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT). These findings are according to the results of a federally funded, Mayo Clinic-led, multi-institution research.

"Metastatic brain tumors are unfortunately common in patients with cancer," says Paul Brown, M.D., a radiation oncologist at Mayo Clinic and the lead author of the study. Dr. Brown says that, while SRS gives physicians the opportunity to treat tumors and spare healthy brain tissue, a combination of SRS plus WBRT has been shown to help control the growth of metastatic brain tumors. "The concern is that WBRT also damages cognitive function," says Dr. Brown. "That is why we have been studying the use of SRS alone."

‘Metastatic brain tumor patients treated with SRS alone had less cognitive deterioration at three months, and their quality of life also improved.
’

Researchers enrolled 213 patients between February 2002 and December 2013, and randomly assigned them to treatment with SRS alone (111) or SRS followed by WBRT (102). Researchers found less cognitive deterioration at three months in patients treated with SRS alone. The quality of life (QOL) was also higher at three months among patients treated with SRS alone. There was no significant difference in functional independence at three months between treatment groups. Median overall survival was 10.4 months for patients treated with SRS alone and 7.4 months for patients treated with SRS and WBRT.

"This is the first large-scale clinical trial to evaluate this patient population with a comprehensive battery of cognitive and QOL instruments," Dr. Brown says. "WBRT has often been offered early in the disease course for patients with metastatic brain tumors, but, because of this trial, we know the negative impact of WBRT on both quality of life and cognitive function is significant. With these trial findings, we expect practice will shift, reserving WBRT for patients with more extensive disease in the brain."

Your comments are automatically posted once they are submitted. All comments are however constantly reviewed for spam and irrelevant material (such as product or personal advertisements, email addresses, telephone numbers and website address). Such insertions do not conform to our policy and 'Terms of Use' and are either deleted or edited and republished.Please keep your comments brief and relevant.This section may also have questions seeking help. If you have the information you are welcome to respond, but please ensure that the information so provided is genuine and not misleading.

Disclaimer - All information and content on this site are for information and educational purposes only. The information should not be used for either diagnosis or treatment or both for any health related problem or disease. Always seek the advice of a qualified physician for medical diagnosis and treatment.Full Disclaimer